A Boy in the Woods
by TheWheelWeaves
Summary: The Doctor tells Rose a story that she recognizes.


**This was originally published in 100-word installments on my Tumblr. It is presented here for your enjoyment in its entirety.**

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Rose heard her door open in the darkness, letting in a small amount of ambient light from the television in her mother's living room. She saw a tall, tousle-haired silhouette standing in the flickering light and she held herself still. She didn't know if he knew she was awake, but she wanted to let him make the first move. She did not know where she stood with this strange, pretty, wild-haired, fast-gobbed Doctor and had resolved to let him take the lead and show her what direction their new relationship would take.

After a moment, he moved. His trainers were nearly silent on the thin carpet- so different from his heavy, booted steps before. He closed the door behind himself and crossed her room in the darkness that was only barely alleviated by a shaft of orange light from the street outside that cut through her thin curtains. Despite being longer and thinner than he had been before, he moved with more grace. His last form, despite being broader of shoulder had seemed to be all elbows and knees as he moved, and outpouring of his prickly nature. This leggy form moved like a dancer.

Rose had still not moved when he took a seat in the chair at the bottom right corner of her bed. She did not know if he thought she still slept, or if he knew that she didn't, but she did not dare to speak for fear he would leave. Despite how terrified she was of this new man, this new Doctor, she wanted him near her. She'd craved his company when he was in leather and darkness, and that fact had not changed (as he claimed that _he_ hadn't) now that he was bright smiles and wool suits. She did not want to frighten him off.

For a long time they remained in silence in the dark. After a time, Rose realized that this was the longest she had seen this man (this _body_, she chided herself, he was the same man) sit still. She might have fallen asleep again, but she was too tense, too worried, too attuned to him to allow herself to drift away.

Then he started to speak.

His voice was low- that had not changed- but the lilt and sway of the vowels was different- familiar as her own voice, but unfamiliar coming from the mouth of a man she called the Doctor.

"Once upon a time," he said softly into the dark of her room, "there was a little boy who lived on the edge of the forest."

Rose did not know if the Doctor knew that she was awake, but she knew that he had sought her presence, whether it was conscious or not, and he was speaking. She would, then, do as she always did and listen. She did not always understand or obey what he said (_not a quarter of the time_, a voice with a dark Northern accent chuckled in her head), but she always, _always_ listened when he spoke.

"His people, the people in the village, told him not to go into the forest- it was dangerous, chaotic, and mad, they told him, but he never listened. He loved the forest and the creatures there. His people would have him believe that the creatures in the forest were stupid, simple, even dangerous. When he went there, however, he knew that they were clever, beautiful, and yes, sometimes very dangerous, sometimes very cruel, but mostly they were good, and he loved them.

"The boy met birds and longed to fly. He met squirrels and longed to climb. He met rabbits and longed to run. Eventually, the forest was more his home than the village.

"One day, however, his people called him home. There was a war coming, they said. A war with the neighbouring village, and he was needed because he was clever and because they were his family, his friends, his people. So the boy left the forest and the creatures therein and returned home where he was made to fight and made to kill, even though he abhorred violence and death.

"Eventually, the war between the villages threatened the forest and the boy could not allow the forest to be destroyed, so he ended the war, burned both villages, and intended to die himself, but he did not.

"When he woke, he was in the forest, and his village and people were gone as if they had never been. He was alone and he knew that it was his lot for destroying both villages and saving the forest- he would always be alone. He set out to go on- he could not live, not with what he'd done, but he could survive it, and that was what he decided that he would do. Merely get by one day at a time. He took up residence in the forest and tried his best to atone for all that he had done.

"One day, as he moved painfully through the forest, one foot in front of the other, however, he found a dog caught in a trap that had been laid during the war. He saved her, and then he sent her away- he no longer took companions. What could he do to those brittle-boned birds and skittish rabbits but destroy them as he had done to his own people who were so much cleverer and stronger than the creatures of the forest? This dog, however, did not seem to want to go. She watched him with gold eyes and seemed to question him, so he left her behind instead.

"Not two days later, however, the boy found himself caught in the same trap that he had saved the dog from and, lo and behold, the dog found him- had, in fact, been tracking him since he had left her behind- and saved him as he had saved her.

"In thanks, the boy brought the dog to the place that he called home. He allowed her in as he had allowed no creature in since the war and he found that, with her there, the loneliness that ate him up inside was not so bitter, the nights were not so black, and the nightmares were not so powerful.

"He told himself that she was just another companion creature- simple, friendly, brave, but ultimately temporary. He told himself that, but found that he depended on her. He wanted to protect her and found that she was fierce as a bear when protecting him.

"The boy had always thought he knew the forest better than anyone, but the dog showed him that, in many ways, she was cleverer than he was. She could see things that he could not, sometimes literally. She could sense when another beast would be kind and when it would attack. She always stood between the boy and dangers that he had not foreseen.

"It wasn't long before the boy began to suspect that he was being stalked by a wolf. It seemed that everywhere he and the dog went, they found wolf tracks. The dog noticed them too, but was unafraid. Of all of the creatures in the forest, the boy believed that she was the bravest. He had always been told, however, that the Big Bad Wolf was the most dangerous creature in the forest, and so he ran from it as best he could. The prints were always there before them, however, and the boy feared for himself and his dog.

"One day, however, they met something that frightened even the dog, and it was more dangerous than the Big Bad Wolf. They met people from the village that had fought with the boy's village. They met the most clever, most evil, and most dangerous people that existed there in the forest where the boy thought he was safe. He sent his dog away because he knew that they would go through her to kill him. She didn't want to go- fought him every step of the way, in fact- but he threw rocks at her to get her to leave.

"When she was gone, the boy faced down his enemy. He couldn't destroy them, not without destroying the entire forest, he knew it. So he faced his death. It wasn't so bad- the forest would survive, and so would his dog. He didn't know when her survival became as important to him as the entire forest, but it was. As long as she was alive somewhere, some when, he could face his death with his head held high. His enemies asked if he would kill them and called him a coward when he would not. He was proud to be a coward.

"But then, as he faced his enemies, as he faced his death, he heard a howl and a growl and between him and the others stood a Wolf, and that Wolf was his dog, but he'd been too blind to see. She destroyed his enemies, but not without a cost. She was poisoned, and she would die and the boy knew… he knew that he would willingly die to keep his wolf alive, so he kissed her and took the poison away from her. He spat it out, gave it away, but still he knew that he would die.

"And, as if the poison had cleared his eyes, he knew that in this fairy tale there wasn't a prince, and there wasn't a princess. There was a little boy lost in the woods and the Big Bad Wolf who saved him. And instead of dying, he did whatever he could to become a wolf for her, even though he knows that she loved the boy that he was. And he doesn't know if she can love him like he is now, but he wants her to. He wants her to love him and to keep saving him, his Big Bad Wolf."

Rose had no idea what to think. She couldn't remember exactly what happened on the Game Station, but she thought that, maybe, he had just told her, more or less. She had saved him, and she was the Bad Wolf.

The Doctor moved toward her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Think on that, my Rose. I don't know that I can go on without you."

When Rose woke the next morning, she wasn't sure whether it had been a dream or reality, but she knew that she could never leave her Doctor to travel the forest without his Wolf.


End file.
